The following account is of a charity fund raising event that took place 23 years ago, but due to some technical difficulties I was not able to put on my computer but now I can.This account was on another site and that was where the problem came from, but now it has been put right, here it is.

Andreas Busathon 1990

ANDREA'S BUSATHON 1990 My daughter Andrea was born on March 11th 1966 and within 3 years she was diagnosed with “Cystic Fibrosis” - that was why I and my wife Avril got into fund-raising. So, for the next few years, we played our part in various fund-raising projects for the C/F trust. In 1985 there was a bus rally to celebrate Midland General's 65th birthday, this was held at Trent's Largely Mill depot which was M G O!s headquarters. I heard about it and thought it might be of interest to me as I was a foreemer bus conductor then coach painter for M G O. I was looking round the depot when I spotted a few old work mates that I had not seen for years as I had left M G O in 1968, but the thing that interested me most was the wreck of a bus they were standing next to. I asked them after passing on the usual greetings, “what's that?” They informed me that it was a Bristol M W ex M G O fleet no 296 reg. no DNU 20C. That didn!t interest me all that much but when they informed me that they were going to restore it to its former glory I started to get interested. Better still, they asked if I would like to help them - which I did. Prior to the events of my first meeting with 296 I was just a normal family man; I had worked at Courtauld Acetate of Spondon as a scaffold inspector. So I knuckled down helping with the bus and carried on doing my bit for the C/F trust. The bus was duly finished in 1986 and went on to the rally circuit. In 1989 Andrea got married to Colin Lamb whose family were interested in the vintage scene, and this led to Colin's involvement in 296. In the meantime I had became a partner in the bus and I was very enthusiastic in the rally scene. But doing my bit for fund-raising for C/F meant that I had two interests in my spare time which led to a bit of a conflict. Meanwhile the three other partners in the bus seemed to me to be losing interest in it, due I think to their own other interests, so I started toplan rallies, but I was also thinking of something big to raise money for C/F trust. Sitting down in a pub one night I was discussing the two matters with Andrea!s husband Colin, when we hit on the idea of using the bus as a fund-raising medium. We talked about various projects but none seemed exciting enough. It was then I thought of the far fetched idea of driving the bus around the entire coastline of mainland Britain. One thing that put us off that idea was the narrowness of some of the roads in the north and west of Scotland, another was the time it would take us to do it as we had to think about our jobs. We settled on the idea of running round the coastline of England and Wales - we wondered how far that would be but agreed that the speedometer would tell us that when we finished the run. To do this as a major fund-raising event was becoming a bit of a headache, but we had the help of Alan Robertson who was at that time the Cystic Fibrosis Northern Director and who became a major player in the project. One of his suggestions was that we try to get corporate sponsorship from industry, so with the help of Alan and a book called “A Guide to Company Giving” I wrote to over a thousand companies in the U K for sponsorship. Thanks to their replies and money pledged it became a very worthwhile project and I shall be forever grateful for their donations and good wishes. Fuel for the bus was a big concern but one of our first replies came from Burma Fuels who donated all the diesel and oil that we would require for the whole of the trip - once again my eternal thanks to them. My three other partners in the bus had already given me their blessing to use the bus but did not want to take any part in the event. It was agreed between Colin and myself that we would split the organisation in two, so I would see to all the planning and correspondence, and Colin would see to the bus.

Prior to setting off we put adverts off our sponsors in the bus windows, this helped to create a bit of privacy at night as we were sleeping on the bus

Except for the two people in shell suits that was the crew.

I didn'nt want to be left out of the photosthese two where taken on Redcar Sunday Market.

The bus trip needed a posh title. With Alan Robertson's help we came up with the idea of naming it after Colin's wife, my daughter Andrea - hence “Andrea's Busathon” was born. The dates we agreed on for this to take place was between July 24th and August 4th which would give us plenty of time to organise it and to put another idea into place, that was street collections wherever we stopped. I wrote to 63 local authorities along our proposed route and got all our permits. The idea was that we would stop between 30 mins and two hours and collect money via collecting boxes, plus handing out leaflets to explain about C/F and raise awareness about it. Over the winter months Colin and the bus partners made sure that the bus was fit for such an event as this. I in the meantime painted 296 inside as well as outside. Meanwhile our permits were coming in fast, but one area we had overlooked was where to park the bus whilst collecting money as in most seaside towns parking was prohibited. I contacted all the Police Forces on our proposed route but 50% were not too happy about us stopping on yellow lines - however, with sensible approach to them and suitable compromises all round it was sufficient to keep all parties happy. With all this taking place we had to decide who would go with us as we would be sleeping on the bus, I decided that six would suffice. So with quite a few volunteers it was decided that we pick those we thought would be good with the collecting boxes. Those settled on were myself, Colin, Paul Fountain, Scott Glover, Phil Everit and Colin's sister Karen Thornley, and as we would be sleeping on the bus we had to think of Karen's privacy (as it turned out, no problem). In some of the overnight stops some Fire Stations en route said they would put us up if we so required, many thanks to them. With sleeping on the bus I was worried that the bus might look like a down-and-outs doss house. I would not allow any seats to be taken out so we bridged the seats with wood and laid lilos (inflatable airbeds) across them, but I had the back seat. The luggage rack bays were to be allocated to each member of the crew. Before departure my co-driver Colin became a problem as he had never driven a bus before. I took him out on several occasions to get him used to the bus, but because of his age of 22 my insurance company would not insure him. To make it legal, a well-known insurance company sponsored him for a small fee for the entire trip. Prior to departure a route had to be worked out so that supporters of the Trust could meet us en route. The route decided upon would be east from Ilkeston to Skegness, north to Berwick on Tweed, across to Cumbria via the tip of Scotland, then head south on the west coast into Wales and Anglesey. From there, down to Devon and Cornwall along the south coast, then into London so we could call in at the headquarters of the Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust. Finally, back through East Anglia to Skeggy then returning to Ilkeston via the Organ Festival on Nottingham's Trent Embankment. Extra privacy for Karen arrived in the form of boarded logo!s of some of our sponsors. While all this was going on I managed to pull a few rallies including Nottingham Steam Rally where I met the late great Fred Dibner, what a great character. As the 24th of July came nearer my nerves were playing up and some of my hair decided to leave home. My employers Courtauld Acetate of Spondon sponsored us with essentials we would need on the bus such as cups, plates, knives and forks, bog rolls etc. for which I thanked them very much.

The big day arrived for our departure. We did a street collection on Ilkeston Market and as this is a bus themed event I have omitted the values of each collections as this as been covered elsewhere. To set us off on our journey, Clr Bill Camm of Erewash Borough The big day arrived for our departure. We did a street collection on Ilkeston Market and as this is a bus themed event I have omitted the values of each collections as this as been covered elsewhere. To set us off on our journey, Clr Bill Camm of Erewash Borough Council did the honours, also waving us off was my wife and Andrea, the usual press and photo call was also present. I had a M G O bus uniform on to remind people that this was a bus/charity event After saying our good-byes I drove off in the direction of Skeggy. Things were going perfectly until we got to the newly opened Lincoln by-pass and the bus began to lose power - 55 mph should have been the max. speed but it dropped to below 45 mph on the flat and really struggled to get up hills. We arrived at Skeggy behind schedule. Paul organised the collections whilst myself and Colin attempted to find out what was wrong with the bus, but since neither of us was a mechanic we could not find out what was wrong with it. Meanwhile a few more hairs on my head decided to leave home. We had a good back up team back home if anything major happened. A tow back to Ilkeston could be arranged if we needed it we contacted them and sought their advice, they told us to carry on so we did so. Our next stop was Whitby but we were three hours late, the local group had arranged for us to park up on a farm overnight many thanks to them. Day 2 saw us off to a very early start, our destination was Redcar racecourse, there was a Sunday market being held there and we had permission to do a collection. Apart from getting a good amount of money a great deal of interest was being given to the bus it could have been a bus rally judging the amount of people looking around the bus. I had been wearing the bus uniform but the weather got so hot that I had to wear civvies. As we travelled north the problems with the bus got worse, and we lost more time and had to miss some of our collecting venues. Our next stop was Berwick-on -Tweed Fire Station they were putting us up for the night, we enquired if they had a diesel fitter on duty, their fitter was not available until the following day. We talked things over with the crew and decided to carry on and make an early start. At 5 30 am on day 3 we set off for Cumbria and the state of the bus had got no better or worse. We picked the easiest and most direct route into Cumbria. It was round about that time that I noticed that the speedometer had packed in, we stopped to do a repair on it but it was caput. A few more hairs left home. Our final destination for that day was the Wirral on Merseyside via Blackpool and Southport. One of our 2 hr collections was at Egremont but because of their generosity and the interest shown in the bus we stayed an extra hour. That extra hour put us a little behind and because we were strangers to the roads in that area we fell a bit behind and we had to cut collecting times at our allocated stops to make up time. Upon arriving on the M6 the bus suddenly regained all of its power, but the hair that left home never came back.

The Police in Morecambe, Blackpool and Southport were not very helpful and it reflected on our collections. The rest of the day went according to plan and we arrived at the Wirral on time. We parked the bus in the grounds of the Leasowe Castle Hotel which was once owned by British Rail, again interest was shown in the bus. The following day we parked the bus in a pedestrian area in the Wirral, the bus was the star again, also the Police were very helpful. After an uneventful day we set off down the A55 to the Britannia Bridge on Anglesey, there we were greeted by the Anglesey branch of the Trust with a cavalcade of cars displaying flags and banners of the C/F trust. A collection had been arranged for us at Benlech and it was there that I learned more about 296, during the collection a man came up to me and told me he used to drive the bus. It was not in MGO!s time but he informed me that his brother, a Mr Griffiths, owned the bus in the early 1980s. I let him drive around the car park a few times for old times! sake. We parked the bus on a camp site in Trearddur Bay overnight. Anglesey proved to be the most profitable part of the journey. Day 5 got us off to a good start heading down the west coast of Wales, how Crossville's Bristol MWs got up some of the hills in that area was a testament to those fine machines. There were loads of frustrated car drivers who couldn't get by us. “Tough luck,” I thought, “have a bit of patience.” One or two started mouthing off but they soon got put in their place as Colin is a big lad.

The crew and a few C/F supporters outside of Egremont Conservative Club after they had presented us with a cheque.

Our overnight stop on the Wirral.

The man standing at the entrance of the bus is the brother of the former owner of the bus Mr Griffiths and he used to drive it on school runs around Anglesey, it made his day seeing the bus again.

Our destination for that day was Tenby but before that various fund raising events were going to take place for en-route. At a stop before Tenby arrangements were made for an ex ex MGO MW to meet up with us to aid our fund-raising, it was going to be HNU 267 fleet no. 269, or HNU 269 fleet no. 271. These were owned by Medway Motors of Crymych, and I was looking forward to this very much. The bus performed as well as could be expected, but because of the hilly terrain we fell behind schedule. At approx. 13 miles from Fishguard disaster struck. Colin was doing his stint going down a hill when we heard a loud explosion, it was the offside inner tyre that had blown up. Colin managed to steer the bus to a safe area while we inspected the damage. First glance showed us the the explosion had completely destroyed the rear mudguard. While all the panic that was going one by the crew one face was missing it, was Paul. Prior to the bang Paul had been asleep on the seat over that wheel arch, when we got to him he was in a severe state of shock, we tried to make him as comfortable as possible whilst we assessed the situation. Now we had two major problems to deal with, the bus and Paul. Being fairly well organised Colin had got what can only be described as one of the first mobile phones, so contacting a tyre company was no problem, just as well we were miles from civilisation. On investigating our two spare tyres we thought one was a bit dicey so we contacted the tyre company again and asked to bring a new tyre - we weren!t going to be caught out again. After we had removed the damaged tyre there was a long wait before the tyre people came which gave us time to assess the condition of Paul who by now was in a right tidy state. We kept our cool and nurse Karen looked after Paul. It was decision time do we pack it all in and cut our losses or do we carry on a unanimous vote said carry on the only thing that left was more of my hair. When the tyre people came it was another set back for they had brought the wrong tyre. They then went off in search of the correct tyre, and as we had food and a Calor gas stove on board we cooked a meal and this gave Paul time to come round after informing us in no uncertain words there was no need to call an ambulance.

The offending tyre (In other words the BxxxxxD tyre).

Thats me with the tyre man. Ladies don't get exited by looking at my body.

Five hours later Paul was ok and we set off again, but the day's time table had shot it. We managed to make just one stop, and it was a pre-planned stop for a bit of a barbecue, but the meeting with 269 or 271 was lost this was because it was night time. We did not stop anymore till we got onto the M4 services, and there we settled down for the night. After such a rotten day the sleep I was having was erratic with funny dreams about accidents etc. One bad dream I thought I was having was one of the bus moving on its own, only it wasn!t a dream -we were on a slight slope and the bus started to roll. I woke up, leaped over all the sleeping bodies, got to the cab area and yanked the handbrake on just as we mounted one of those high curved kerb stones that they have in motorway services. Panic set in again with the crew bodies flying everywhere,that's all we needed another bloody disaster I thought. We all pulled ourselves together while we assessed the situation, and trtied to find out what happened. There was the usual sarcastic comments from some of the morons that had come to have a look. "”Oh dear,” said one of the morons "I've never been woken up like that before.” I thought, if you soon don't shut your mouth you won't wake up again. On looking at the bus it seemed that it was balancing on the high kerbstone off the bottom of the radiator. After the volley of swear words it was time to put thinking caps on. The saddos that were gawping soon saw what sort of mood we were in and soon dispersed, and let us get on with things. First investigation shown us that the handbrake was firmly on, second investigation we found that the burst tyre had damaged the handbrake rods making the handbrake ineffective on the offside, the bus had not been left in gear or chocked, no apportion of blame was not put on anyone. The only way we were going to get the bus off the kerbstone was to Jack it up onto wooden blocks and inch it off, meanwhile two things were happening first more hair left home and secondly the morons returned lined up like a row of Crows gawping. It took us about an hour to free the bus much to the disappointment of the morons who dispersed again because there was nothing to look at. We set off again but had to miss one or two stops as we had to divert off our route to go to Swindon for a lunchtime appointment with our fuel sponsors Burma Fuels so we had to miss some more collections.

These are the C/F supporters who organised the barbecue and the meeting with former MGO bus.

Note the bus firmly wedged on the high kerb stones, thats Karen in front making tea and the creature looking on had to much to say we had took Colin away before he lamped him one.

Also in Swindon the tyre company contacted us and told us to wait as they had found us the correct size tyre in which they duly fitted it, something had gone right! The rest of the journey through Somerset and Devon through to Cornwall went without incident. Overnight for days 6&7 we stayed at Bodmin Fire Station and slept in proper beds, many thanks were passed again for their hospitality. Some of the roads in Cornwall were a bit narrow and we found it a bit of a struggle to get down some,but we managed. All the collections went according to plan and we managed to spend a short time in Lands End. A slight problem happened on our second night in Bodmin Fire Station. On this night, we had been out for a drink and were doing pub collections, but on our arrival back on the bus we could smell something burning. It was the wiring on the radio, we soon sorted that out and did not require the services of our hosts. By this time Scott believed the bus was Jinxed and was ready to go home, but he soon calmed down when the effects of beer wore off. Morale of the crew was getting a bit less enthusiastic than it was when we first set out and it was beginning to show on the street collections. Karen left us after our first week, not because of the problems we had with the bus, simply because she had only agreed to come for one week, and she had done a great job. Karen's husband picked her up on Exeter services. And it was than I noticed that a couple of the crew seemed to be treating the whole excercise as a holiday, and again it reflected on the street collections. This disappointed myself and Colin as we had put a lot of hard work into the project. As a treat I let them have some time to themselves and they spent some of it looking round HMS Victory as a way of getting morale back.

With all the problems we had we still made it to Lands End.

I presented Karen with a bunch of flowers prior to her departure.

This is my favourite time of the whole event, having my photo taken with the staff of the Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust at their Headquarters in Bromley Kent.

They even made time to bake us a cake, and it was very tasty.

296 in the grounds of the C/F H/Q

Days 8,9,10,and 11 went according to plan the bus behaved itself, but the hairs on my head kept leaving home and did not return. Day 12 saw us go off route to the Cystic Fibrosis Headquarters at Bromley in Kent. This was one day I shall never forget, their hospitality was out of this world which was the morale boost that I needed. As the bus was parked on the HQs driveway interest was show in it from passers by, I bet they were fed up of seeing London Transport red. After a scrumptious buffet lunch we set off and rejoined the coastal road again and headed for Canterbury thinking there would be rich pickings for our collecting boxes, wrong!, the Police and Traffic wardens were all over us just like the Gestapo, we had to give it up as a bad job and leave before our due time. Our destination for that night was Clacton Fire Station and again we were treated very well, many thanks again. The dissenting twos attitude got worse and it was showing on the other two, at that time it was the bus that was showing any enthusiasm it was giving 100% performance it had given us no problems since the slight mishap in Bodmin Fire Station. When we got to Wells-Next- The-Sea I had just about given up with all of the crew, so I let them have a three hour break at the swimming baths, but who gave a dam except me. I eventually found a place to park and did a street collection on my own. Our final destination was Skegness, and once again hospitality was shown by the local Fire Brigade, it was the same goodwill that had been shown to us all over our route in the the past two weeks. They had put on a display of modern and vintage fire engine in our honour plus a nice fat cheque. On day 14 we said our good-byes to Skegness Fire Station and headed off to our final destination which was the Showman's Organ Festival being held on the Trent embankment at Trent Bridge Nottingham and there to be welcomed back by Avril, Andrea, members of my family and Colin's family, also there was Alan Robertson. I gave a big sigh of relief to be back and that 296 was back in one piece. Still no sign of my hair coming back. Analysing the whole project since we got back and now 20 years later I think it was a very ambitious project but a worthwhile one. Tributes must go out to drivers of Bristol M Ws that used to drive on some of our coastal areas how they kept on time was a miracle. The whole event including sponsorship raised £8250 well done to all.

Thats Paul with his collecting box in Great Yarmouth.

The person presenting me with cheque donation is the Fire Chief of Skegness.

POSTSCRIPT All this took place 20 years ago and many things have happened since then. Sadly Andrea died on 15th December 1991, Colin and myself remain good friends same with Karen. Paul passed his P C V and is now a driver for Trent/Barton, my then partners in the bus did not stress at the mishaps with the bus. Now that I own the bus I am asked if I would do it again. “LETS WAIT AND SEE” Copyright Lynn Pestell July 2010 e-mail avril.pestell@ntlworld.com.

Colin is 5th from left and Andrea is kneeling in front of him I am 6th from left Alan Robertson is 7th and Paul is 9th